Preparation of fur for shrinking and felting



Patented Nov. 26, 1929 JOHN H. MARTIN, OF BALDWIN, NEW YORK PREPARATION OF FUR FOR SHRINKING AND FELTING No Drawing.

In the preparation of fur hair or fur (as it may be designated for brevity) for felting and for the shinkage which must accompany the felting, particularly in the manufacture of hats, the fur, either on the skin or after its removal from the skin, is subjected-to the action of chemicals which so affect the character of the fur as to promote the shrinking andthe felting, the chemical employed, generally in'solution, being sometimes brushed into the fur on the skin, the fur being subsequently removed from the skin, and being sometimes used as a bath in which the fur is immersed after removal from the skin. After treatment with the chemical, the fur is dried and is thereafter subjected to shrinking and felting and dyeing processes, to which the treatment referred to is preliminary. The method heretofore em loyed and even now commonly employed as involved the use of nitrate of mercury, which gives satisfactory results so far as the shrinking and felting qualities of the fur areconcerned, but is known to be exceedingly harmful to those who apply it and to those who handle the fur in subse quent processes. Other chemicals, such as sodium peroxide, have been proposed, but have been found to give less satisfactory results so far as concerns the effect on the fur. Still other chemicals have been proposed and have been found to give satisfactory results, although the discovery of their efiectiveness has been so recent that they have not yet come into Wide use. In the further investigation of the subject and inv the development of the presentinvention, it has been found that a salt of manganese in solution, either organic or inorganic, will produce results not only fully equal to that produced by nitrate of mercury without its harmful effect, but even superior in the felting quality of the fur and in the absence of undesirable effects on color or otherwise. The solution of the salt of manganesemay be either neutral or acid, de-

pgnding on the characteristics of the fur to treated, and may be also of different degress of concentration, depending also on the nature of the fur. As examples of embodi- 59 ments of the invention, the following are Application filed April 16,

1927. Serial No. 184,437.

noted, it being understood that the solution is applied to the fur in the usual manner, either to the fur before it is removed from the skin onto the fur after it is removed from the skin. As a neutral inorganic solution, a four (4) percent solution of nitrate of manganese has been found to give satisfactory results. If the nature of the fur is such as to give better results'with an acid solution, two (2) percent of an acid, such 60 as nitric acid," for example, may be added to the four (4) percent solution of nitrate of manganese. As an example of a neutral organic solution, a five (5) percent solution of lactate of manganese maybe employed 5 and this may be rendered acid, if conditions require, by the addition of a small percentage, say two or three percent, of some acid, such as lactic acid, for example.

I claim as my invention:

1. The improvement in the art of preparing fur for. shrinking and felting, which consists in subjecting the fur to the action of a solution of a salt of manganese which has manganese as its base.

2. The improvement in the art of preparing fur for shrinking and felting, which consists in subjecting the fur to the action of a neutral solution of a salt of manganese which has manganese as its base.

3. The improvement in the art of preparing fur for shrinking and felting, which consists in subjecting the furto the action of a solution of an organic salt of manganese.

This specification signed this 15th I day of 5 April A. D. 1927. JOHN H. MARTIN. 

